Topic: House rules.
Anonymous A started this discussion 15 years ago #13,346
The GM stood up, attempting to punctuate the assorted babbling about YouTube videos and upcoming video games.
“First things first. Do you all remember last time after we gave up on that time-travel game, you said you would stick to the same characters this time around?â€
“Yeah, of course. That game was stupid. Why did you let E keep his character after he kept dying?†enquired Alice
“It was in his background. He could regenerate. Anyway, that game is finished now.â€
“1,200 years and I get killed by a little girl in a spacesuit who is also my wife and my best friend’s daughter…†grumbled E.
“Yes, yes… anyway, new game now. I got the new V20 compilation and I believe I asked you all to bring new World of Darkness characters?â€
The players all looked down. Alice pretended to half-heartedly riffle through her varied character sheets – a fast eye would have caught a Jedi and a Chromatic Wizard, but nothing that would fit in with an Anne Rice/Tom Clancy collaboration.
“That’s what I thought. Not to worry, since I’ve had a few ideas and your stock characters wouldn’t be much good here.â€
The players looked up, and the stoic at the end of the table lifted an eyebrow. He rarely spoke, preferring to play characters that shared his love of hitting things.
“You will be playing Caitiff, and you roll to see if you start with a discipline. I will then roll a d100 to determine setting, as listed in this GURPS chartâ€. The GM briefly flashed a sheet of A3 paper, containing such promising gems as “poisoned gold mine in the Old West†and “pit stop at a futuristic NASCAR arenaâ€.
The players dutifully rolled their assorted lucky d20s.
“OK, nice, good…†said the GM, paying attention to a rather smaller chart and scribbling something on some aging post-it notes. He then passed these around to general disappointment.
“Alice, you rolled a 20! You are practically a full…†*rattle rattle*â€â€¦Malkavian! You get future awareness as your Dementationâ€.
Alice seemed relatively pleased with her character, but other responses were less positive.
*rattle*
“Civil War Ventrue male, with really weak mass-Dominate. You can control NPC emotions if they aren’t really paying attention.â€
*rattle*
“Depression-era Toreador female, no disciplines.â€
*rattle*
“Um… natural 1. I guess you can be… really big?â€
The big guy grunted.
“OK, E, your turn.â€
*rattle. Rattle, rattle, rattle*
The GM frowned at the dice, then turned to the charts, and then back to the dice.
*rattle rattle rattle*
The second set of rolls seemed to give no better results than the first.
“OK… sorry, I can’t read my own writing, hehe… it looks like you get The Mind Revealed from the Auspex line! None of the other powers, though. There’s a massive point cost to that, you’ll need to take a weakness.â€
“How about total obsession with a particular mortal?†smirked E, knowing that the GM never remembered to enforce such weaknesses. The other players rolled their eyes, while E’s bored girlfriend stopped filing her nails and looked up at the table for the first time all night.
The GM sighed. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. Ah well, it might work out depending upon the setting. You might get one of those dungeon crawls where you never see a human.â€
The big guy smiled, remembering the solo session he had broken some weeks prior.
The GM noticed this change of expression, and sighed again. “No, it won’t be like Amnesia.â€
The GM rolled the die behind his battered cardboard shield.
The players waited with mixed levels of interest.
The GM’s face went through several distinct expressions. Shock, calculation, horror, evil glee…
“Well?†asked Alice.
The GM looked up at his players with a wide grin.
“American High School.†declared the GM in a tone of utter smugness.
“Oooh, can I play?†asked Edward’s girlfriend.
“First things first. Do you all remember last time after we gave up on that time-travel game, you said you would stick to the same characters this time around?â€
“Yeah, of course. That game was stupid. Why did you let E keep his character after he kept dying?†enquired Alice
“It was in his background. He could regenerate. Anyway, that game is finished now.â€
“1,200 years and I get killed by a little girl in a spacesuit who is also my wife and my best friend’s daughter…†grumbled E.
“Yes, yes… anyway, new game now. I got the new V20 compilation and I believe I asked you all to bring new World of Darkness characters?â€
The players all looked down. Alice pretended to half-heartedly riffle through her varied character sheets – a fast eye would have caught a Jedi and a Chromatic Wizard, but nothing that would fit in with an Anne Rice/Tom Clancy collaboration.
“That’s what I thought. Not to worry, since I’ve had a few ideas and your stock characters wouldn’t be much good here.â€
The players looked up, and the stoic at the end of the table lifted an eyebrow. He rarely spoke, preferring to play characters that shared his love of hitting things.
“You will be playing Caitiff, and you roll to see if you start with a discipline. I will then roll a d100 to determine setting, as listed in this GURPS chartâ€. The GM briefly flashed a sheet of A3 paper, containing such promising gems as “poisoned gold mine in the Old West†and “pit stop at a futuristic NASCAR arenaâ€.
The players dutifully rolled their assorted lucky d20s.
“OK, nice, good…†said the GM, paying attention to a rather smaller chart and scribbling something on some aging post-it notes. He then passed these around to general disappointment.
“Alice, you rolled a 20! You are practically a full…†*rattle rattle*â€â€¦Malkavian! You get future awareness as your Dementationâ€.
Alice seemed relatively pleased with her character, but other responses were less positive.
*rattle*
“Civil War Ventrue male, with really weak mass-Dominate. You can control NPC emotions if they aren’t really paying attention.â€
*rattle*
“Depression-era Toreador female, no disciplines.â€
*rattle*
“Um… natural 1. I guess you can be… really big?â€
The big guy grunted.
“OK, E, your turn.â€
*rattle. Rattle, rattle, rattle*
The GM frowned at the dice, then turned to the charts, and then back to the dice.
*rattle rattle rattle*
The second set of rolls seemed to give no better results than the first.
“OK… sorry, I can’t read my own writing, hehe… it looks like you get The Mind Revealed from the Auspex line! None of the other powers, though. There’s a massive point cost to that, you’ll need to take a weakness.â€
“How about total obsession with a particular mortal?†smirked E, knowing that the GM never remembered to enforce such weaknesses. The other players rolled their eyes, while E’s bored girlfriend stopped filing her nails and looked up at the table for the first time all night.
The GM sighed. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. Ah well, it might work out depending upon the setting. You might get one of those dungeon crawls where you never see a human.â€
The big guy smiled, remembering the solo session he had broken some weeks prior.
The GM noticed this change of expression, and sighed again. “No, it won’t be like Amnesia.â€
The GM rolled the die behind his battered cardboard shield.
The players waited with mixed levels of interest.
The GM’s face went through several distinct expressions. Shock, calculation, horror, evil glee…
“Well?†asked Alice.
The GM looked up at his players with a wide grin.
“American High School.†declared the GM in a tone of utter smugness.
“Oooh, can I play?†asked Edward’s girlfriend.
Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 2 hours later[^] [v] #239,579
This is now a House thread.Unintentional Jackass !LASXURl1b6 joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 3 hours after the original post[^] [v] #239,610
How did I not see this as Twilight from the offset, it was so obvious... Anyhow, I actually didn't mind the Twilight novels. Also people who play D&D should write novels, if they write with this style, I like it.